Following up on yesterday's post, I thought I'd throw a few more less celebrated contenders into the mix. First up is the cover of Too Tough to Die by the Ramones. I know what you're thinking – how the hell can you tell what city this album cover was shot in? Well, the cover photo in question was snapped on the East side of Central Park from inside the tunnel adjacent to The Children's Zoo (you can read about the album cover's origins here). I actually have an autographed copy of this album that my friend Rob B. prized for me at a Tower record-signing. While it's not my fave record of theirs (by a loooooong shot), I'll always cherish it. Next up, The Who. Now, I'd always assumed –- given their rampant Britishness -– that this iconic shot from the cover of The Kids are Alright was shot somewhere in London, like at Trafalgar Square or something. Not so. Legend has it that this fabled picture was taken along the circumference of Grant's Tomb up in Morningside Heights in upper Manhattan. I have never found the exact spot, but I plan to at some point. The album below was the first record I ever bought with my own dough (which, at the time, meant about four dollars). I've talked about it here before, but the cover photograph of Dressed to Kill by Kiss was originally shot as part of a fumetti (photographic comic-strip) for Creem magazine (who I'd briefly write for two decades later). The pic was taken by ass-whuppin' photog/rock scenester par excellence, Bob Gruen, who also shot iconic images of The Clash, The Sex Pistols and The New York Dolls. In any case, the pic was snapped on the corner of 8th Avenue and West 23rd street. Not really much to say about this one, other than it was quite obviously shot in Times Square (which, in its 1995 incarnation, was still endearingly sleazy). Like most Foetus records, Gash is awesome – and features Tod [A] of Cop Shoot Cop/Firewater on bass. Go fetch. Not entirely sure about the back story of this one, but the 12" single of the title track of INXS' 1985 album, Listen Like Thieves (which rocks mightily, by the way -yeah, I said it) inexplicably features a wide shot of 3rd Avenue, looking south from about 70th street. On the right hand side, check out the old 68th Street Playhouse, a great little movie theatre that showed proto-"art house" flicks and foreign films. It's gone now, of course. Lastly, the sleeve of my very favorite song of all time, "Eighties" by Killing Joke, is based on a photograph taken right here in NYC. The building in question is part of Rockefeller Center and stands imposingly on the corner of 6th Avenue and 51st street. Below the sleeve is a shot of how it looks today.
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